Dealing with Stinkbugs

This summer seems to have been a bad year for our area of Pennsylvania as far as stinkbugs go. They seem to be all over the place. Where I work has a lot of them and they even get into the house. When we see them inside, we grab a napkin or tissue and get them without smashing them. When you do, they put off a really bad smell thus the name. People have come up with ways to to deal with them but often times the cure is worse than the disease. At work last week I caught sight of a stinkbug caught in a spider's web. The spider came out and was starting to wrap the bug up when he abruptly stopped. He quickly started to cut the bug away from the web and made it drop to the ground. I can only assume that the spider found something out about his prey. The smell of the stinkbug is his defense and a potent one at that. The spider didn't want him in his web because he wouldn't be able to eat him anyway. So the best thing was to cut away the part of the web that kept the stinkbug from being able to escape. The spider knew there was better things out there to catch and eat.

We recently attended the Ministers Enrichment service one evening. We listened to the speaker share about dealing with our lives and how to move forward when things don't go the way we plan. If I was to ask everyone if that has ever happened to you, all of us would say it has. The speaker was telling us to focus on our strengths and not on our weaknesses. People tend to know what their weaknesses are far more than what their strengths are. We all have weaknesses and we all have strength in certain areas. When we focus so acutely on our weaknesses and shortcomings, we keep from moving forward and growing and instead keep right where we are. What we need to do is admit our weaknesses and ask God to help us get better in those areas but even more importantly we need to understand our strengths and see how God wants to use them for His purpose and His glory. We need to be like the spider and get rid of those things that we hold onto from our past that prevents us from growing closer to Christ and becoming more of the people of God we are called to be. Lets get rid of sin and everything else in our lives that block us from ever being the disciples He desires us to be. If there are things in our lives that will not lead to life and maturity, cut them loose and concentrate on those things that will lead us both onward and upward.

Stinkbugs are a lot like sin. We all deal with sin in our lives. Some are more victorious than others not because they know something that others don't! They are victorious because their focus is on Christ and not how to change themselves through their own strength. Let me encourage you to get the stinkbugs out and cut them loose!